IU Graduate Student Selected as Schweitzer Fellow

Posted on Aug 3, 2012

Jill Hersh, a Lansdale, PA, resident and Immaculata University College of Graduate Studies student, has been selected as a 2012-2013 Albert Schweitzer Fellow. Hersh is enrolled in the Graduate Psychology Program at Immaculata majoring in Clinical Psychology.

Among approximately 240 other Schweitzer Fellows from across the country, Hersh is the first Immaculata University student to be selected for the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. The Fellows will be conceptualizing and carrying out service projects that address the social determinants of health in underserved communities. As part of a new initiative at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, Hersh will help to increase awareness and educate the community about corporal punishment. Her project will build upon parents’ existing strengths and teach ways to diminish parent-child conflicts. She will provide both on-site, science-based parenting classes and individual parent guidance. Using a parent training model, she aims to teach parents to manage stress, reduce aggression, improve parent-child interactions, and bring about a positive family atmosphere.

Upon completion of her Fellowship year, Hersh will become a Schweitzer Fellow for Life and join a network of 2,500 individuals who are skilled in, and committed to, addressing the health needs of underserved people throughout their careers as professionals.

Immaculata University is a Catholic, coeducational institution of higher learning, located on the Main Line between Malvern and Exton, 20 miles west of Philadelphia.